To better understand how BovB found its way into such a diverse range of creatures, researchers at the University of Adelaide used sequences from these animals to construct a phylogenetic tree. If BovB had been passed down from a common ancestor and remained in their genomes as they diversified, then the more closely related species would have more similar versions of the DNA sequence. But that was not the case.

Instead, the team found that BovB sequences from cows were more closely related to snakes than elephants, for example. The researchers suggest that the only explanation for such unexpected evolutionary relationships is that BovB has jumped between genomes, and they figured that it must have done so at least 9 times.

Finally, the researchers identified a potential vector. BovB sequences were found in two tick species that suck the blood of lizards and snakes, indicating that parasitic arthropods could be responsible for passing the jumping genes between species.